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I was wondering how long it would take you other designers to do a site like http://www.comoxrealestate.com which I recently finished for a client. It took me 70 hours to do, with nearly half of that time spent on the numerous redesigns. How long would something like this take you to complete? Thanks for the help!

With all the information in front of me...probably the good part of a day. Experience with design drastically cuts down on work time. When you know what works where, you develop a style that is easy to reproduce.

It is important to be in constant touch with the client to let them know what is going on and to make sure that you understand their needs. I also feel that the cleint is happiest when they feel that they have made choices so by giving them different design concepts to choose from the client is included from thre outset.

I code everything in HotDog/Notepad to make sure my code is clean and efficient so coding and ammends may take slightly longer but they I pride myself on their look and feel.

Ammends are bound to occurr so give yourself more than extra time to deal with them, you might even end up with the same thing you started with but you must allow for them (Michael I noticed you used DW templates so you shouldn't have had to spend more than a few hours on these!).

Testing and evaluation is VERY important, including things like link and HTMl checkers, accessibility checkers and different browsers and resolutions!

Finally, optimise and submit to search engines!

This may seem like a lot more time than other developers charge for, but I ensure that the cleint is aware from the outset of what they are getting for their money and that they will end up with a quality product that should last them a long time with minimal updating!

We (I believe) were all giving estimations of how much it would take us to do what is on the site now.

I surely didn't include:
* meeting and email/phone discussions with client
* design of three different concepts for client to choose from
* promotion/submition to search engines and advertising outlets

Because I didn't think that was what the gentleman was asking for, but you sure are through. lol

Patrick, you are probably correct in saying that my explanation was probably not what Michael was after. However, I decided to include it because I would never consider a project completed without all those elements!

I guess the amount of time it takes really does depend on your experience. It took me a total of 70 hours but this is with five redesigns, changing the format a few times and writing the content as well as changing it many times. I think that if my client had been satisfied with the original design and wrote her own content it could have been done in about 40 hours. Still a lot longer then most of you but it's one of my first sites. It is quite a large site with a total of 40 pages and 64 images as well as four forms, though.

Site looks good. If I subtract calls, client time, etc. and I just made it from a specification,it would probably take me about 8-10 hours. For some reason, your rollovers are acting wacky and inconsistent when I go to your site. I'm using IE 5.5 with all the latest updates...

Of course it depends on redesigns and all that...I would say 60-90 minutes per redesign. That includes brief e-mails or phone calls between the client and myself. The problem would be that good communication is hard to come by, so those 5-8 hours would probably be spread out over a week or two. Not very efficient unless I have a good number of multiple projects to work on at the same time.

actually you can't really ask someone how long he/she would take to do that website

everyone and anyone can say "i could do that easily!"
but that's only because everything is planned out for him, everything is already created, and all he has to do is mimic it.

creating something is much more difficult than copying something when you already know how to do it. making a website is fairly straightforward, its the planning, the thinking and the conceptualising that is so much more time consuming

people, after all, don't get paid for copying websites, they get sued. It's the people who create websites who get the credit.

Factor in communication with clients, revisions, updates, deadlines, project tasks and the host of other services web designers should provide, and you will certainly get a more realistic answer like Nicky's!

I could also mimic a design in a couple of hours, but to actually come up with the idea and make a ton of changes for the client adds a lot of time. Writing to content and making many revisions also takes a lot of time. It really depends on your experience and the client.

Originally posted by michaelwheaton I could also mimic a design in a couple of hours, but to actually come up with the idea and make a ton of changes for the client adds a lot of time. Writing to content and making many revisions also takes a lot of time. It really depends on your experience and the client.

You've hit the nail on the head. I find the largest amount of time is spent with client interaction : finding out what they want, changing it when they change their minds, revisions again, etc.

It's relatively quick, even without templates, to make a web site. Designing one on the other hand takes some time. Often a client that is not web savvy and new to the net does not know the differance between a nice design and a bad one.

I had one client that wanted bright garish colors, all kinds of movement and animation, and a bunch of other dreck. I warned them that it would grow old fast and be distracting, but that's what they wanted. I built a site and billed them.
About a month ago they came back fro me to do a total revision with a more subtle site design that would appeal to their clients more. The client had realized he was scaring away some of his clients (the site is aimed at school administrators).

I would say with all the information in front of me, and a template done that the customer likes, about an hour.. but without a template i would say 2-3 hours, of making the image, cutting it, adding mouseovers, checking html...